Is Blogging the Best Way to Learn HTML?

I spent a good part of today--the last day of my "vacation" going through a little html tutorial. It was fun, and I was very proud of myself when I saw the website coming together on my text editor, however when I tried to upload my files to my free web host--tripod, none of the images worked and as a complete novice, I had NO idea what had gone wrong by looking at the coding.

But I shant give up, I shall persevere, which was the first requirement of the html class. The author said that the key to web success is perseverance. I'll post the website url to some forums and see if someone can look at the source code and point me in the right direction. And I'll keep trying to create sites from scratch. I always said I wanted to master another language, why not html?

In the meantime there is always blogger. I'm going to create a new blog just for experimentation purposes. I'll keep reading up on html and looking at my blogger html codes. They are actually starting to make some sense to me.

You know what's funny is that I think I used my first ever html tags on BlackPlanet.com to separate paragraphs in my profile. Look how far I've come!

Below is a book on my wishlist.

One Blog Post Several Uses

I’ve been known to go weeks, months, YEARS without updating this blog. It makes me feel so guilty that at times I consider discontinuing. It’s one thing to have a private project like a novel that I put down for long periods of time and no one really knows--only me. But a blog is public. Any visitor can come and see that I’ve been a slouch for three months straight…LOL…

Here’s my dilemma. I’m always posting to Bellaonline Forums, yahoo groups, Twitter, Facebook etc and of course writing columns and articles to the tune of about three or four a week, not to mention my personal journal. So when it comes to this blog, I keep coming up empty. I just don’t know what to say.

I have, fortunately, come up with a solution that I think will work. The next time I write a long post to a forum or group, I’ll try to use most of I write as a blog entry or the other way around. For example, I’ll post this to the Social Networking forum on Bellaonline.

Oh and here’s another thing. I think I’ll keep it simple. Instead of trying to do graphics and being like the other great bloggers out there who are html whizzes, I’m going to keep my blog basically as text. Just for now. Then eventually I’ll get better. So it’s back to the basics for me. Without the pressure to be a graphic genius and come up with completely new stuff I’ve never said before. I’ll try this to see this works.

Also I want to have fun with this piece of technology. I want to learn it. Today I posted a Twitter feed and posted from my yahoo email account. Both exercises were fun and I was ecstatic when they actually worked! I think without putting a lot of pressure on myself, one day I can be a pretty good blogger. So stay tuned!

Emailing from Yahoo

Trying an experiment.  I'm emailing this from my yahoo account.  I have my fingers crossed that it works!

Get Rid of Stuff That's Holding You Back!

I'm reading and LOVING Julie Morgenstern's SHED Your Stuff Change Your Life: When Organizing Isn't Enough. This is not simply a de-cluttering and organizing your life book, it's also about getting rid of old, outdated belief systems that keep us stagnated and attached to things.

For example Morgenstern uses the example of the well organized closet full of stuff you don't even use anymore. I'm also enjoying Morgenstern's personal story of how she went from a career in theater to Professional Organizer.

The basic premise of the book--so far I'm only part way through--is that you can't have what you want in your life, until you actually make room for it by SHEDing some stuff you don't want or need anymore.

With Romance Setting is Everything

One of the books I'm reading this week is Brenda Jackson's True Love. True Love is a romance novel about a woman who wants to ruin the company that fired her mother before she was born.

As I'm becoming more and more discerning with the romance novels I read, I realize I need a backstory that interests me. I have a quite a few romantic suspense novels here that I have yet to read. I much prefer business oriented romance novels. I want to see what the characters do for living. Setting is also important. A few weeks ago I read Red Sky by Renee Alexis. This story took place in New Mexico and was chock full of information about Native American culture. Very interesting read.

A Hip Hop Story

I started to read Straight From the Source by Kim Osorio last week. Tho I haven’t been into hip hop since Roxanne Roxanne (okay, I’m dating myself here. LOL) and I’ve only read The Source once when Queen Latifah was on the cover back in the late 90s. Still, I love a good rise to the top/business story and if it involves writing and publishing so much the better.

While this isn't a self-help book per se, this is the way I'm reading it. I'd read something about how Ms. Osorio said she was uniquely qualified to be the Editor in Chief of The Source so I wanted to read her story to see the step by step process. For Osorio it all started with a love of hip hop and while she took some detours through law school and other jobs, she kept her eye on the ultimate prize--The Source magazine and eventually she did get it. Of course it was not without some trials and tribulations. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of this book.

Have You Mastered the Soft Skills Necessary for Success?

This morning I was browsing through books on Amazon and I came across What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful by Marshall Goldsmith. This book seems to be about the other side of success. There are the hard technical skills, then there are the soft people skills and of course your life outside the job. I’ve been guilty myself of undervaluing the intangibles when it comes to success.

Recently I listened to a blog talk radio program (Let's Talk with Dr. Wendy) which was devoted to this same concept. The expert guest was Ellen Denise Junious author of Unleash the Power of Personal Advantage: 7 Keys to Unlock Your Potential for Success. I don’t have this book yet, but it’s definitely on my to-read list.

I like this idea because being success means different things as you evolve and it also means that you must master a new set of skills at each level. W. Heartsill Wilson writing in the Foreword to Making a Habit of Success by Mack R Douglas said that success is for those who “diligently combine and recombine an endless flow of patterns into one productive process that accomplishes successful results, yet whose composition is everchanging.”

Success is not a destination, it’s a journey.

The Lorax Saves the Trees

One of the nice things about being a parent is that I can share some things I enjoyed as a child with my own children. I loved The Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham when I was a little girl. Now that I'm a mother I'm discovering more books by Dr. Seuss that I didn't even know existed.

My daughter's favorite Dr. Seuss book is The Lorax. I'd never heard of this book until she randomly plucked it off the shelf at the library one day. Not only is The Lorax fun to read out loud, also it contains a very important message about saving the environment. The interesting thing is that the book was written almost 40 years ago. Warning bells have been ringing for a long time. Glad we're finally listening.

Kids can find out more about saving the environment and play "The Lorax Saves the Trees Game" by visiting Seussville.com